14 Jul Towards a new shopper marketing

Who are today’s shoppers?

Shoppers are all individuals with their own desires, needs, impulsive feelings, habits, reasoning and contradictions. Today, it is obvious that shoppers have become very demanding. They do not just want everything, but the best of everything! Shoppers are not against purchases made in a shop, but they want to take advantage of good offers, discounts and everything that online business has to offer. It is important, however, to always bear in mind that the buyer is not always the consumer.

The intelligence of shopper marketing

Shopper marketing embraces all the marketing stimuli destined to influence or trigger a purchase. In this sense, it is imperative to understand the expectations and attitudes of today’s shoppers, as well as being able to decipher their choices. Shopper marketing must clarify all the questions posed by consumers. That is why many companies and businesses have merged their marketing and sales departments. Together, they are able to progress faster and share all that can be learned about the new shoppers.
By being the ones that make the purchases, shoppers find themselves at the centre of everything. Companies must know how to attract them and to talk to them at the right moment. Of course, the multiplication of channels, especially digital, make the entire puzzle more complicated and delicate. The hardest task lies in the fusion of the supports and gradually wiping out the barrier that separates the real world from the virtual world, thus leaving just one.

The challenge of shopper marketing

The last few years have witnessed a power transfer. The power has been relinquished by industry in favour of distributors. Today we see that this power has been usurped by shoppers, which radically changes the situation. In effect, distributors and brands have never worked together towards a goal of satisfying their customers. For companies and businesses, this implies a profound change of attitude. It seems urgent for them to develop their modus operandi. Furthermore, digital technologies have immersed themselves in the world of shopper marketing, and can no longer be ignored. Brands today must move towards conversational commerce in the goal of attracting the largest possible number of shoppers.

Shopper insights

Michaël Bendavid, managing director at Strategic Research, explains that “Stimulating innovation must be funnelled through a more attentive listening to consumers, the problems that the latter encounter in the utilisation of products or services, and in the expectations that they express.” The objective lies in analysing customer habits during the buyers’ journey, and even their characterology. In psychology we define insight as “the sudden discovery of the solution to a problem without going through a series of attempts or errors”. That is why insight must be coherent, relying on a fundamental truth and mobilising a need or a desire. Quality and trend studies are in agreement today on the analysis of motivations, expectations and the shopper experience regarding products. Insight will therefore allow companies to orient their commercialisation policies in a more realistic fashion.